This invention relates to a work rack structure for correcting and aligning misshapen vehicle frame and body portions and a method of fastening a car to be corrected and aligned on the rack structure.
The increasing traffic nowadays has caused an increasing need for alignments of cars, which have become warped because of a smash, diving into a ditch or the like. Work rack structures are mostly very bulky devices which take up a great deal of space. Even motor car workshops of relatively small dimensions have a demand for work rack structures for correcting and aligning cars or other vehicles and therefore there is a definite need for rack structures which are flexible, which are easy to move to be placed on different places within the workshop and which are able to be put away to take very little place when they are not needed.
In the U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,023,394 and 4,050,287 of the same applicants as the present invention, a method and an apparatus are described in which a rack is built up around a car, which is to be aligned, from separate beams easy to secure to the car and to each other. When the rack structure and the car have been connected to each other, the rack is lifted up in each end at the time by a movable lifting jack, and stands having selectable, presettable heights are placed under the rack. This rack has all the advantages mentioned above, but the mounting of a car by aid of it has many mounting steps. This is shown on FIG. 1, which shows the different mounting steps in serial order.
This rack includes a pair of crossing transverse beam members having wheels at its lower part and clamping members to be connected to the welding seams or rims on the vehicle underframe on its top. In order to connect these beam members to the vehicle
(A) the front end of vehicle 101 is lifted up by a lifting jack 102
(B) the first transverse beam member 103 is rolled under vehicle 101 and its clamping members 104 are attached to the vehicle rims on each side of the car
(C) car 101 is lowered and the lifting jack is taken away, and
(D) moved to the back of the car to lift this end up
(E) the other transverse beam member 105 is placed under the car and attached to its rims, and
(F) the lifting jack is taken aside
(G) a beam frame 106 is placed under the car and is attached to the two crossing transverse beam members 103 and 105
(H) one end of beam frame 106 is lifted up by lifting jack 102
(I) two stands 107 having heights settable in advance are placed under the frame on each side at the back side of it, and
(J) the frame is lowered to rest on the back stands 107
(K) the lifting jack is moved to lift up the front side of the frame, and
(L) stands 108 are placed also under the front end of the frame.
(M) As a result of these operations the car is placed on the rack in a height in which it is convenient for the operator to work with the car and with its wheels running freely.
The rack system described above is very flexible and adaptable to all possible kinds of motor cars but the mounting of the work rack structure on the car has many working moments and there is a need for a flexible work rack system having fewer working moments in mounting a car on it. The transverse beam members are projecting out laterally from the rack especially if the car mounted on it is a small-sized car, even when these are not used for the actual aligning operation for the car, which sometimes makes the operator irritated. There is also a need for a flexible working rack, which can be totally detached and put away when it is not needed but which does not have to be totally detached between alignment works on different cars if these cars are to be aligned one after another.